No third season for 1 vs. 100

During the game’s beta season, more than 114,000 people played the free Xbox Live trivia show simultaneously. But apparently, its popularity wasn’t enough to warrant another season. Instead, Microsoft’s 1 Vs. 100 team plans on “focusing their skills and applying the technology used to develop 1 Vs. 100 to new projects that will be unveiled in the future.”

Microsoft Game Studios’ general manager Dave McCarthy said:

“When we started on this journey, we knew we were creating an entirely new genre of entertainment that would be a continually evolving concept. We’re very proud of the ‘1 vs 100′ team and their accomplishments, and are excited to apply what we’ve learned to future programming.”

I can’t overstate how much of a disappointment this news is. 1 Vs. 100 was a unique, spectacular idea that, despite its lack of advertising, gathered quite a lot of attention from a devoted, weekly audience. The game was especially good at drawing in non-video gamers like older relatives and other people who are generally completely disinterested in the Xbox 360. Heck, people even bought the console just to play the game each weekend.

It was sad enough to see Microsoft completely bail on its Primetime Channel idea. Watching them ditch 1 Vs. 100 as well is just shocking.